Re: [Gnu-arch-users] Re: Backing up Arch archives

[Jan Hudec]

On Fri, Apr 09, 2004 at 10:41:07 +0000, Julian T. J. Midgley wrote:
> I've added a few notes on backing up and restoring Arch archives to the wiki 
> at: 
> http://wiki.gnuarch.org/moin.cgi/Backing_20up_20and_20restoring_20Arch_20archives
> 
> Whilst writing that, it occurred to me that it's possible that tla
> updates the archive in such a way that it's probably just as safe and
> significantly faster to backup via rsync or tar.  I vaguely remember
> reading somewhere that it manipulates the repository by creating
> temporary directories, filling them with whatever stuff is required,
> and renaming them into place when finished.  If so, presumably the
> worst that could occur if, say, someone committed part way through a
> backup, is that the backup ends up containing a random temporary
> directory that tla would presumably ignore if you ever had to restore
> from it.
> 
> Is this true for all operations that can be performed an archive?
> I.e. can one take self-consistent backups of live Arch archives with
> simple recursive copy operations?  Apologies if this has been asked a
> thousand times before, or if it's obvious(ly wrong?); I'll summarise
> the responses of the knowledgeable on the Wiki so it doesn't crop up
> again.

Tla would not ignore the lock, but that can be broken with appropriate
command. All the rest will be ok. So yes, you can create archive backup
with rsync or tar. (Actualy, there is tla-rsync-archive. It works like
tla push-mirror, though it does not keep the archive completely correct,
but is an order of magnitude faster).

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                 Jan 'Bulb' Hudec 
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